So you do not think that society has a legitimate interest in promoting childbearing?
Only to the extent that it is necessary for the survival of the species. Society has a greater interest in turning out a high proportion of contributors from whatever offspring it produces. And it certainly has an interest in not producing more children than it can support.
Whether or not you agree with my view of that issue, you have to agree that it is not devoid of merit. It may or may not be a "better" perspective than yours as I playfully asserted earlier, but it in not clearly inferior. There is room on this earth for people believing each and practicing each, at least at this point and time, so there's no reason to insist that one of them be the rule. If the situation changes and necessity arises, then we can make a rule but we don't need one now. If we don't need a rule, then free choice and respect for the choices of others should reign. To do otherwise is suffocating.
if you have done someone wrong, you owe that person an apology as a matter of justice.
That's your view of the world. Everyone doesn't operate that way. You like it because it satisfies your sense of justice but other people have different ideas about justice. And different levels of affinity for rule structures.
Earlier today I said to you that no apology was expected. I was teasing you, of course, but if you said something hurtful to me, I guess you would feel you owed me one. Personally, I don't care for one. I'd rather not have one because that would be uncomfortable for me. So what do you do? Do you apologize because your sense of justice requires it or are you sensitive to my (the victim) wishes in the matter. Maybe, if you're going to have a rule, the rule should be that you make up for what you did in the way most agreeable to the victim.
My point in that example was not to make a further issue of your potentially hurtful comments but merely to provide a familiar example. Who cares if there's an apology as long as the parties are satisfied with the result? Rules for such as this are fine for teaching children, for adults they're too rigid. Adults should be sensitive to their own wrongdoing and sensitive to the needs of those they've hurt, from which data they can sort such things out on an ad hoc basis. |
